Ways to Listen to a River:

In Ways to Listen to a River Nahuel uses music, video and poetry to tell stories of three important rivers in his life: the Limay and the Salado in Argentina, and the Vecht in the Netherlands. Following these rivers he investigates how history and ecology, feelings, and intimate memories are part of the sound of a river: how rivers define us, and how we influence them.

Rivers are particularly complex and dynamic systems: in infinite interactions they shape and are shaped by the land they flow through, while shaping and being shaped by human visions, fears and needs. Rivers are also incredibly powerful metaphors and spiritual forces, valuable and coveted economic assets, witnesses and bearers of history. What opens up by being attentive to their sounds? Which are the stories and histories that a river carries? What can we learn from them?

In this work, Argentine artist Nahuel Cano researches the history and meaning of rivers: the Limay and Salado in Argentina and the Vecht in the Netherlands. He translated the research into music and poems, to later build an audiovisual performance in collaboration with filmmaker Juan Fernández Gebauer and Ensemble Modelo62. Ways to listen to a river  is a “performative concert”: It consists of live music, video projection, spoken word and actions on stage.

Following those rivers' traits, in the piece the historical, the political and the ecological, but also the inner, intimate territories are threads that contribute to a particular form of storytelling. Ways to listen to a river embraces ecological grief in an attempt to understand and exorcise it, for to listen to the whispers of a history of colonisation and violence from a present on the verge of collapse.